Saracens’ Mark McCall is the latest Prem director of rugby to question player welfare regulations that he believes have left internationals undercooked for the season’s start.
Guidelines mandated by the Professional Rugby Board – established as part of the club-country agreement – dictate that England players who took part in summer tours of Argentina and the US have 10 weeks off. They were available for the first set of Prem games last weekend, but could not take part in the two rounds of Prem Cup matches before that.
As a result, McCall believes that the England No 8 Tom Willis as well as the Scotland fly-half Fergus Burke – regulations apply to all internationals whose summer tours ended in mid-July – were not sufficiently prepared for the start of the club season, claiming they began the campaign cold. McCall pointed to how some clubs, such as Bath, arranged pre-season friendlies and fielded largely youth sides in the Prem Cup, but said it should not require loopholes to ensure players are battle-hardened.
In the case of the British & Irish Lions, whose third Test against Australia was on 2 August, they are not available until the third round of the Prem season. Clubs can apply for dispensation, however, and Owen Farrell was allowed to start the season with Saracens having missed large spells with Racing 92 because of injury. It is understood he would have also been allowed to play in the Prem Cup.
The 10-week stand-down period was agreed in March and is designed to ensure sufficient rest periods after a campaign. Numerous players – including the England and Lions captain, Maro Itoje, and his Saracens teammate Ben Earl – exceeded the 30-match limit.
“The RFU and Premiership Rugby dictate that you have to serve a 10-week period before your next game,” McCall said after his side’s 39-17 victory against Newcastle last Friday. “For me, people therefore come into Premiership Rugby unprepared for the demands of the game.
“Owen came off with some tightness. Ferg [Burke] was tight, but we couldn’t get him off. We need to look at that because if they had been able to play 20 or 30 minutes last weekend, you get ready for what a real match is like.
“Some of our people who hadn’t played are really struggling towards the end of the game. We need to look at that.
“We could have got around it and had a friendly last weekend and played an under-18 team in the Prem Cup. A couple of clubs did. That’s on me [but] I don’t think you should have to do that. You can play an 80-minute friendly and it doesn’t count as a match, but you can play 15 minutes in a Prem Cup [game] and it does count as a match.”
The Northampton director of rugby, Phil Dowson, voiced a similar opinion in preseason, telling the Northampton Chronicle: “The first time, based on a welfare point of view, which I’m not entirely sure I agree with, they get to play is in a full-blooded Premiership game.”
Sale’s Alex Sanderson conceded his team were rusty in the first half of their opening-night victory against Gloucester. He said: “That’s the internationals’ first game. So some poor decisions, some poor execution, a bit stodgy, a bit stop-starty. I was frustrated at half-time.”
